From the perspective of a device manufacturer, one of the big pluses of the Android operating system is the adaptability. You can use it as a code base and completely customize the appearance (ie, the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire). Samsung and HTC have always been firm believers in this philosophy, dating way back to the days of Windows Mobile phones.
Tell me again about the war, grandpa.
Windows Mobile was kind of a mess in the interface department, and Samsung’s TouchWiz and HTC’s Sense (originally called HTC Home and then TouchFlo) were good ways around the issues with that OS. When Android first came out, Sense and TouchWiz were adapted and ported over, and this helped users transition to an OS still a bit rough around the edges. Except that was back in 2009. Android has come a long, long way since then, and version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is pretty close to being pure awesome. The thing is, over that span of time, HTC and Samsung have turned their skins into a kind of branding, and they’re not just ready to give up that identity. Even if it’s damaging to the user.
They're really invested in the metaphor.
Take HTC’s Sense for example. While the new HTC One line of phones will run a minimalistic Sense 4.0, older phones being updated to Android 4.0 will instead run Sense 3.6 (they’re currently running 3.0). Endaget took a look at this revision and to say that it ain’t pretty would be an understatement. My personal beef is that they took one of the best things about Ice Cream Sandwich — the app drawer and widget management — and are instead keeping it the same as Android 2.3.5 and earlier. On the one hand, this makes it easier for existing users to transition. On the other, it’s simply annoying and a seemingly backward move.
Even more disappointing though, is Samsung’s slowly trickling out update. The Verge rightly notes that TouchWiz on the Samsung Galaxy S II looks and feels exactly the same as the previous Android version. There’s barely any way to know that you’re running Ice Cream Sandwich at all. Considering that Samsung was the maker of the most recent Nexus phone, Google’s reference design for makers, it’s frustrating to see them ignore just about everything and go for such a heavy-handed approach.
Pictured: Some Samsung exec's car.
It’s not all bad news. Everything I’ve read about HTC’s Sense 4.0 indicates there’s a much lighter touch applied, and there’s always the next version of TouchWiz. Also, even with the quirks of appearance and function, early benchmarks show that Android 4.0 on a legacy device runs a bit better than the OS they shipped with.
If you want to take full advantage of all the great UI features of Ice Cream Sandwich, you must go for a Galaxy Nexus, install a custom ROM, or wait until companies care more about the end user’s actual experience than branding.
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